Tattoo Stories is a new Party Game for 2020 from Bicycle Games. The game is for 4 to 6 players, ages 12 & up. The game has a retail price of $19.99. Bicycle has recently started producing board games. Earlier this year we reviewed Bicycle’s “The Alpha” which is a light “area control” strategy game that we really enjoyed. Today we have a look at Tattoo Stories.
Tattoo Stories is available from Amazon and has an average score of 4.7/5.0 from buyers.
What’s in the box?
Box contents are very simple:
- 6 dry erase tablets (7 inches wide by 5.5 inches tall)
- 6 dry erase markers
- 220 Tattoo Elements cards
- Rules sheet
How does the Game Play?
The active player is looking to get a new tattoo. She draws 10 random “Element” cards from the deck box. She looks over these 10 element cards and has to narrow the elements down to 5 cards. Now that she has 5 cards, she asks the other players to design her a tattoo based on those 5 elements.
Here are 5 cards that she might take: Yin Yang; High Heels; Monster Truck; Butterfly; and Feather.
Now all the other players (Tattoo Artists) grab their marker and their dry erase boards and get busy designing tattoos. They have 3 minutes to come up with their best idea, and get busy drawing. One stipulation is that once the tattoo artists start drawing, they can’t erase anything – just like a real tattoo parlor.
During your drawing time, you can ask your customer questions about the design they are looking for. You could ask something like: “Are you looking a side view of a monster truck, or the grill view?”
Once the 3 minutes are up, each tattoo artist pitches their ideas and reveals their tats.
Players might come up with something like this:
The Pitch
Now you might be a horrible artist, but you can still pitch your idea to your customer. You get to explain how you worked every little nuance into your tattoo, and why your idea is the best for them.
Once the customer has heard all the pitches, she will give divvy out each of the element cards to the artist(s) that she thought did the best job on that particular element. She might say: “That bottom monster truck isn’t a good drawing, but I like the Yin Yang aspect!” and give that artist the Yin Yang card. She can divvy out the rest of the cards as she sees fit. She can even give all 5 cards to one artist.
The game is played over two rounds. Everyone is the customer twice. The person that has collected the most element cards after two rounds is considered the winner.
Likes, Dislikes and Final Thoughts
Tattoo Stories is a fun and simple party game. It is about on the same level as Telestrations. It is very easy to teach and very easy to learn. Each player’s turn takes about 5 minutes. A four player game will take about 30 minutes, while a 6 player game will take about an hour.
The components are top notch. The dry erase boards, markers, and element cards are all of good quality.
Tattoo Stories works well with both family and friends. The box says Tatoo Stories is for players ages 12 and up. I think younger kids could easily play this game if you think they have the patience to listen to other “artists” sell their pitches.
Now me, … I’m a really bad artist, but I like the fact that I can still try to pitch my ideas even if they look really crappy on on the dry erase board.
Tattoo Stories works really well as a party game. My only dislike here is that I really wish there were 8 boards in the box. Our gaming group consists of 8 players, and we have tweaked our Tattoo Stories game so we can play it with 8 players. We ninja’d some markers and dry erase tablets from Telestrations. We play 1 round with 8 players.
There can be a lot of laughs and chuckles during gameplay. Some art will make you laugh, and some of the artists pitches can be hilarious. If you are with the right group of gamers, that will make for a great night of fun!
If you are trying to spice up your party game collection, this is an easy recommendation. If you have more than 6 players, consider adding in some dry erase boards from other games, or maybe picking up two copies of tattoo stories. The price is definitely reasonable for a party game. 😉
Tattoo Stories is available from Amazon and has an average score of 4.7/5.0 from buyers.
